Monday Manna: Dead and Hidden

Welcome to Monday Manna. The purpose of this meme is to get together and get to know Christ more through His Word. On the first and third Monday of each month, anyone who wishes can post their thoughts on a verse I introduced at my blog the Thursday before. It doesn't have to be a long post -- just a few thoughts, a picture you feel helps express it, a poem, a short story, a devotional.

Anyone is welcome to participate. Just post to your blog and link up at the bottom of this post in the Mr. Linky gadget.

This Monday's verse is definitely a thought-provoking one.

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:2-3

My thoughts are below:

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I died.

Most folks who would hear me say that would think I was lying. I mean, if I died, how could I tell you? I'm dead. The dead don't tell tales - or so they say.

But it's true. I died. I am no longer of this earth. And how do I know this?

Because God's Word says so. And God never lies. When I was saved (and you too, for that matter), I died. My old self - the self that was concerned with material things, with the here and now, no longer lives. It's dead. The essence of the "pre-salvation me" is gone.

And do you know what is amazing? I've been reborn, as Christ was, and my new life--my eternal, heavenly life--is hidden in my Savior.

I am, in fact, so well-hidden in Christ, that when God the Father looks at me, He doesn't see me. He doesn't sigh and feel ashamed of my foibles and mistakes and purposeful defiance of Him. All he sees is what I am "hidden in." He sees His perfect, loving, blameless Son. For that is exactly what Christ's sacrifice on the cross did. When He died for me, He took on my filthy, degenerate sin nature, and gave me His sinless, perfect one.

And God sees me in Christ. To the Lord, Christ is my "outside."

And that, my friends, takes my breath away. Good thing I'm already dead.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to link up below with your own thoughts on this verse, and read the other folks' contributions as well. I guarantee you will be blessed!